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Manually adding VITC timecode to Quicktime clips
Hi,
Does anyone know if there is a way to manually insert VITC timecode to Quicktime clips ?
-chrispy
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12 Replies
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Are you talking about BITC (Burnt In Time Code)?
Just put the clips in a sequence and drop the “Time Code Reader” effect on the clips.
Rafael -
Hi Chrispy
I am not sure that any codec wrapped in the current Quicktime iteration would support or hold vertical interval timecode. Its pretty fast and I dont think the current timing structure has any method of holding the bits in the necessary pattern. In an ideal world QuickTime X which may fully support timecode to AES EBU specification – that is down to the sample level – may.
Heres hoping anyway. If I find anything that does I’ll post here.
I have a nostalgic fondness for VITC – it has saved my online butt on more than one occasion.Best Regards
Chris Wyatt -
Hi Chris,
VITC is a technology used in tapes so the video desks can read TC when the tape is played at slow speed.
VITC it makes no sense in QT or any other digital file.
Cheers,
Rafael -
Hi Rafael
I have used VITC to complete complex edits from sources with unreliable LTC. These sources were digital betacam and created unusable Quicktime media. I’m not saying it does make sense embedded in a Quicktime file.
I posited that the actual sample bits (represented by the video codec inside Quicktime) and a method of deriving timing information from them would.
BTW you can’t currently play a Quicktime file “at a slow speed” at the moment and get usable timing information from it.
If that helps explain my comment.Regards
Chris Wyatt -
[Rafael Amador] “VITC is a technology used in tapes so the video desks can read TC when the tape is played at slow speed.
VITC it makes no sense in QT or any other digital file.”So you do not want Time Code on your QT files? thats what vitc is, and it is needed in QT also.
AuX timecode is written into VITC, some metadata is captured into VITC.Most of all in the new tapeless world how are you going to explain your intentions to the playout server without having a timecode and control track.
Just because you may not understand or have need for TC does not mean that someone else does not.
gary adcock
Studio37
HD & Film Consultation
Post and Production WorkflowsInside look at the IoHD
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/adcock_gary/AJAIOHD.php -
Amen to that Gary.
Best Regards
Chris Wyatt -
[gary adcock] “So you do not want Time Code on your QT files? thats what vitc is, and it is needed in QT also. AuX timecode is written into VITC, some metadata is captured into VITC. “
OK Gary if you want to call that VITC. For me the VITC goes embed in the Vertical Blanking o the video signal. QT files have no Vertical Blanking.
In QT the TC is not any more Longitudinal, neither Vertical, is just a TC track.
Rafael -
From my understanding, both VITC and LTC make sense on tape. LTC was written as an audio signal on a linear track, so it could only be read when the tape is moving. The advantage was, if would go up in frequency when the tape was fast forwarded/rewound, so it could still be read.
The VITC was written in the vertical blanking interval in a helical scan by a video head. Thus when the tape was paused, the read heads would continue to read that frame, and the timecode could be decoded. The disadvantage was that VITC could not be read in fast forward/rewind, because the vertical blanking was not being read.
Because of this, I don’t understand adding VITC to a quicktime. Couldn’t the VITC be added when the quicktime is put to tape?
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christopher
If you want to add or change the existing TC track, there is a free standalone app called “sebskys tools” the website is gone, but maybe someone here can email you a copy
“I like video because its so fast!”
Bob Flood
Greer & Associates, Inc. -
[Rafael Amador] “QT files have no Vertical Blanking.
In QT the TC is not any more Longitudinal, neither Vertical, is just a TC track.”I’m with Rafael on this. VITC is for tapes.
Sean
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